This blog is dedicated to my adventures and experiences traveling around Europe and performing research with the Interuniversity Microelectronics Center (IMEC) through JHU's Institute for NanoBiotechnology's (INBT) IRES program (http://inbt.jhu.edu/)

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Revisting Bruges

This past weekend, I went to revisit the medieval city of Bruges.

I went on a brewery tour of the De Halve Maan Brewery, which is the only remaining family brewery in the city of Bruges that is still active. Their beers are world famous and have won numerous awards. The award winning beers include Brugse Zot Blonde and Brugse Zot double.

This was my first brewery tour ever, but I think it's the typical tour you can get at any type of brewery. They show you their malting and fermentation facilities along with all the tools they use to brew the beer. Since this is a small brewery situated right in the congested city of Bruges, their facilities were confined to maybe a large building, definitely not warehouse style. On the roof of the brewery we got a nice view of the the Beguinage.

Afterwards, I made my way back to the city center to get another look at the Belfry. I didn't go up again this time, because I didn't feel like paying again to see the same view that I saw last year.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I got a new camera so I wanted to retake pictures of important sites. My old point and shoot camera wouldn't have been able to capture this entire building due to its limited focal length and therefore wide-angle capabilities.

After walking around the Markt, I went on a canal tour around the city. For about 7 euros, you could go on a half hour tour along the canals that span 5 km around and through the city.

The tour really didn't take me anywhere that I couldn't have gotten by foot, however, it did give me a different perspective of viewing the city (in the middle of a canal versus the sidewalk).

Even though I've been to Bruges probably 4 times now, I still enjoy walking along the cobbled streets while admiring the architecture. It's just so radically different from anything you see in the states, it's difficult not to just sit back and appreciate the strong history of the city. That's one thing I dislike about the states. We have no history relative to Europe. Most of our architecture is relatively new, so we don't ever see anything truly original.

If anyone was wondering, all my pictures were shot with a Nikon D90 and the kit 18-105 mm vibration reduction lens. All the photos were taken in Manual mode or Shutter priority.

About Me

Johns Hopkins University Class of 2010
Major: Chemical and Biomolecular engineering with concentration in Interfaces and Nanotechnology
Minor: Entrepreneurship and Management
At Hopkins, I work in Dr. Gracias' lab fabricating 3D self-assembled microstructures. For more information about the research in Dr. Gracias' lab, please refer to http://www.jhu.edu/chembe/gracias/
Through INBT's IRES program, I am performing researching with IMEC in Leuven, Belgium. For more information about INBT or the IRES program, please visit http://inbt.jhu.edu/
Briefly, IMEC is Europe's largest independent research center in nanoelectronics and nanobiotechnology. For more information about IMEC, please refer to http://www2.imec.be/